Patch 2.1.0 PTR Patch Notes (Updated August 13)

Updates to patch notes can be found in red. Last updated August 13, 2014 @ 9:00 p.m. PDT.

Below you'll find the preliminary PTR patch notes for patch 2.1.0. Please note that this isn't the final version of the patch notes and that some changes may not be documented or described in full detail.

New Feature: Seasons
Seasons are an optional, recurring game mode that offers players the opportunity to periodically start fresh, leveling Normal or Hardcore characters from scratch without gold, resources, or previously earned Paragon experience. Similar to the separation between Normal and Hardcore game modes, Seasonal characters will have their own shared stash and artisan progression as well. Any items, gold, or Paragon experience earned during a Season will be rolled over to a player's non-Seasonal characters once the Season concludes.

Seasons offer unique rewards and new challenges for players, including new Legendaries, an exclusive Transmogrification set only available to those who compete in each Season, and new achievements called Conquests. Progress within a given Season will be tracked in our new Leaderboard system.

New Feature: Greater Rifts
Formerly referred to as Tiered Rifts, Greater Rifts are a special type of timed Nephalem Rift. There are an infinite number of Greater Rift levels, and each Greater Rift level will be progressively more difficult than the last.

Completing a Greater Rift within its alloted time will allow players to progress to the next level (and if your time is exceptionally good, you may even skip multiple levels at once). Players can continue progressing through Greater Rift levels so along as they complete the Rift before its timer expires. Once a timer expires, players will reach the end of their current Greater Rift journey and their best results will be tracked in our new Leaderboard system.

New Feature: Leaderboards
With the addition of Seasons and Greater Rifts, we want to provide players with a way to measure their progress within each of those environments. To do so, we've created Leaderboards.

Leaderboards will track a variety of competitive player data including Greater Rifts clear times, Seasonal achievement point totals, and Seasonal Conquest completion ranking across several different game styles. Designed to be informative and detailed, Leaderboards will also allow you to compare your progress to that of players within your gameplay region, on your friends list, and in your clan roster.

New Feature: The Cesspools
In patch 2.1.0 and moving forward, players will now have a chance to spawn a new level environement while in a Nephalem Rift or Greater Rift: The Cesspools.

Originally designed as the sewers of Westmarch, we weren't quite able to include the Cesspools in the list of playable environments in Reaper of Souls by the time the expansion launched. Still, we loved the look and feel of this festering, dank underworld and have spent some time polishing it up for use in Nephalem Rifts and Greater Rifts. We hope you enjoy this new randomized landscape!

The Exploding Palm applied by this item will now use the Skill Rune you're currently using

Fulminating Onslaught will now only apply Exploding Palm to the primary target of each strike

Legendary Gems

Further changes have been made to the frequency at which Legendary gems are upgraded

Note: Because of this change the power of each upgrade has been reducedincreased and the overall rate at which gem power is gained through upgrades has been significantly changed

Enforcer

Has been redesigned

Increases the damage of your pets by 25%

Secondary Power: Your pets take 30% reduced damage

Bug Fixes

Fixed an issue preventing players from upgrading Legendary gems located in their Stash

Fixed an issue preventing Legendary gems from displaying their name and rank when socketed in an item

Damage dealt by pets will now properly contribute to the Firebird's Finery (6) Set Bonus

The infinite DoT applied by Firebird's Finery will now properly stack when applied by two different Wizards

Fixed an issue that prevented the non-infinite DoT from Firebird's Finery from dealing damage when the infinite DoT was already applied to another enemy

Fixed an issue that prevented Legendary Gems from contributing to the bonus granted by the Crusader passive Finery

Fixed an issue that could sometimes prevent The Swami's buff from being applied after Archon ended

Fixed an issue that prevented a Hellfire Ring and Amulet from being equipped at the same time

Fixed an issue that prevented Staff of Kyro, Fury of the Vanished Peak, Grand Vizier, Incense Torch of the Grand Temple, and Tzo Krin's Gaze from properly rolling with their respective +% damage to skill affixes

Ramaladni's Gift

Players will now properly be prompted with a confirmation dialog before using Ramaladni's Gift

Fixed and issue that caused items to re-roll their affix values when Ramaladni's Gift was used on that item

Will now properly be Account Bound

Fixed an issue that allowed sockets to be rolled back on to an item via Enchanting after Ramaladni's Gift was used on that item

Fixed and issue preventing this item from being used on low level items

User Interface

Greater Rifts now have a unique icon that displays when a Greater Rift is open or when a player is inside a Greater Rift

Greater Rift completion times should now always be broadcast to you chat window

Legendary Gem upgrade success chance will now show on the Greater Rift scorecard

The chance for an upgrade attempt to succeed is based on a combination of the rank of the Legendary Gem you're attempting to upgrade and the level of Greater Rift you reached

As a Legendary Gem's rank gets closer to the level of Greater Rift you've completed, the chance of success decreases

Finally, once the rank of a Legendary Gem exceeds the level of Greater Rift you're able to complete the chance to upgrade is cut in half for each rank above the Greater Rift level you completed

For example: If you attempt to upgrade a rank 1 Legendary Gem in a level 30 Greater Rift the chance for success is 100%; however a rank 31 Legendary Gem will only have a 30% chance for success in a level 30 Greater Rift and a level 32 Legendary Gem will have a 15% chance of success

The only requirement to upgrade a Legendary Gem is the gem itself; there is no other cost associated with upgrading

Each Legendary Gem has a property listed in blue that will be upgraded each time the gem's rank increases

Each Legendary Gem has a secondary power that will be unlocked when it reaches rank 20025

The only requirement to upgrade a Legendary Gem is the gem itself; there is no other cost associated with upgrading

Each Legendary Gem has a property listed in blue that will be upgraded each time the gem's rank increases

Each Legendary Gem has a secondary power that will be unlocked when it reaches Rank 50

Players will not receive a duplicate of any Legendary Gem the character they're currently playing has access to

This includes Legendary Gems in the character's inventory, its followers' inventories, or the Shared Stash, as well as Legendary Gems socketed in items in those locations

The base damage range of all two-handed melee weapons has been increased by approximately 26-30% depending on the speed of the weapon, with slower weapons receiving a slightly higher increase

This change affects weapons from level 10 - 70

This change will retroactively apply to existing items

This change will apply to all item rarities

As a direct result of this change, the Crusader Passive Skill, Heavenly Strength has also been adjusted

When Transmogrifying an item with existing visual effects into a Legendary item, the original item's visual effects will no longer be displayed in addition to the Legendary item's visual effects

Torment-only Set items can now be restored to their original appearance after being transmogrified

Class-restricted appearances can now be applied to any item of the same slot

If an item that has been transmogrified with a class-restricted appearance is equipped on a class that isn't normally able to equip the item to which the appearance belongs, the base appearance will be used instead

For example: You can Transmogrify your Barbarian's Vile Ward to look like Raekor's Burden, but if you use that same Vile Ward on your Crusader it will still look like a Vile Ward